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Reviews
The Dirty Picture (2011)
Have You Felt Silk Lately? No! Try a Half Porn Star.
As a self-confessed movie geek I think it's better to avoid reviews before watching any movie. Nonetheless, you always go to movies with a certain expectation barring Akshay Kumar movies.
First of all, thank you Mr. Luthria for that intelligent quote from Nietzsche but I would rather believe Silk to be a half porn star rather than an iconic dancer. As in the movie, she turned more heads with her moans.
The most fascinating part of the movie is the first half. It has an impeccable transition of a 32B run-away village girl Reshma to a 36D-dancing superstar Silk, in a day and back. It has NS playing a college boy and dancing bare-chested with his man boobs with VB and her "Oh! Man" boobs. It has Emraan Hashmi in a "non-tharki" role. Holy lord!
There is not much to expect from the biopic movie and try doing the same with VB's cleavage. A girl who sleeps around to be famous and then kills herself under pressures of loneliness, failure and self-disgust. Yeah, we've heard that one before and some of us have seen way too much porn stories to be aroused by anything like this. Very importantly, the cheeky dialogues in the movie really need to be praised before they become status messages & forwards.
That Bappi Da song, it's pretty catchy, adds a lot to the movie but the masterstroke of the movie is the Naka Mukka opening. It made people shout in the first class theatres of downtown Mumbai.
The movie completely belongs to VB. I think it's her affection for always choosing characters struck with dire personal tragedies (Ishqiya, Paa, No One Killed Jessica, Bhool Bhulaiyya), that she could play a character like this. She as an actor has always embodied audacity, courage, agony & lust better than her contemporaries. On certain instances, you could see Monjulika right in her eyes.
I like her from the days of Parineeta and in all honesty, this role is worthy of her existing fat.
It's funny but the director could've given south-Indian accent to a few characters and did justice to Naka Mukka because there is a lot of unabashed Bambaiyya attitude in the movie. But it's OK I just feel sorry for him that he always has to cast that producer's brother/son. TK is like a scratch on a brand new car; such a waste. In my opinion, EH was good and deservedly deserved more.
It's true that only great biopics make great movies. This one's quite ordinary just to be saved by VB and you know what.
Rockstar (2011)
Oye Ranbir Puttar! Aye le Twadda Haq. Rab Rakha!
No Ranbir snorting cocaine, no blurred-skin-make-love scenes with Fakhri, no breaking guitar on the stage and no family regretting the decision to throw-out their maverick kid. Yeah it was disappointing because Imtiaz Ali repeated scenes one after another and like our innate expectations there were no happy endings. Lastly, why on earth should the movie be called Rockstar, when it definitely looks like a love story more than an evolution of a legendary musician?
Rockstar isn't an ordinary fare by any measure barring the rather explicably missed transition of a Delhi boy from being a complete asshole to being Jim Morrison. It's a biographical of sacrifice, love & loss from the eyes of a musician, a real eccentric one. Yes, it's not a happy story, it makes you hate the guy, then love him, then hate him some more. By the end of it, you realize that your own emotions towards him are as frivolous as his mood swings. What makes Rockstar a real winner for me is undoubtedly the blend of the story with Rahman's genius musical stroke.
"He set out to conquer the world without knowing a dime about it and in return he lost everything he had. Now he pleads himself to return home – Oh Naadaan Parinday Ghar Aa Jaa!"
Rockstar has been shot like a dream with those hair-raising scenes bathing in sepia, slow- mo shots, the mystique love of Prague and the subtle yet perfect use of documentary-ish footage.
In North India, we have a popular term called "Ainvayee" which quintessentially means out- of-context. Believe me, there are no "Ainvayee" moments in those two hours and more than thirty minutes. This is what makes us Bollywood aficionados keep the faith.
In good taste, the Kapoor scion is a wand of acting genius. Never in the movie has he made himself look awfully bigger than the situation or his co-stars. His pain, his trauma, his fighting his inner demons is as real as it gets. To quote Neetu Kapoor & myself, Ranbir Kapoor is to Raj Kapoor what Sachin Tendulkar is to Don Bradman.
"I have all there is to ask for but my heart is filled with anxiety and a burning sensation". Not to forget, Nargis Fakhri who is a million times more gorgeous and a better actor than Siddharth Mallya's Girlfriend. She is totally smoking. By the way, whoever thought of casting Shammiji & Piyush Mishra, needs a Patiala pat too.
At last, a humble mention for Imtiaz Ali. You have created what a bastard child of Yash Chopra and Anurag Kashyap would have made. Here's a double toast to you and the writers who made sure that there are no dialogues for the obvious.
"Poetry & music only come out of broken hearts. The path to the top is full of insufferable pain."
Agneepath (2012)
Agneepath Rises.
You shouldn't wonder why everyone wants to remake a Big B movie. While the obvious to say is that they are a cult but the truth is we don't have stories, performances and dialogues like that today. A safe trick to pull the audience is to give them a star-studded remake of a movie the continuums of generations swear by.
If you are an ardent moviegoer, you might have felt bad with the fate of Don and Sholay remakes but Agneepath rises. Yash Johar & Mukul Anand will be proud of Karan. They can choose either or both.
First of all, it's not a complete remake. It has its own diversions but it's a wasteful effort not to compare it with the original. Some parts of the remake are a total downer. Not just the parents, I heard the kids say – I think the original was far better.
Sanjay Dutt is the first and the biggest disappointment. Tattoos of Shiva, preachings from Geeta, anecdotes from Mahabharat & Ramayan but not a single original Khalnayak moment till the last 15 minutes. I remember seeing the promo six months back and everyone spoke of Sanjay Dutt taking the entire pie from Hrithik Roshan – only if he would have been a more evil psychopath, psychopath, psychopath.
The next is Chikni Chameli. The choreographer & composer totally spoilt the cake. What a sheer waste of Katrina Kaif. The last but not the least is absence of Krishnan Iyer MA. I want to add the iconic "Sister Abduction" scene to the list but I understand that it's too much of a comparison.
There's not much you could say about the script/story since it's a remake but to talk about the dialogues written by the talented Piyush Mishra – they are mediocre. No special marks to the technicals as well.
Hrithik Roshan is brilliant, probably the best anybody could justify the real VDC. When he cries, feels happy, kills a man, runs, wants revenge, gets bruised – it's all in his eyes, he makes it real enough. He might not have been able to replace Big B's attitude but it was time they used this side of him than just counting on his looks & moves.
The surprise of the movie is Rishi Kapoor. What an actor! With the added touch of the surma, he made a better villain than Baba. He should have had a bigger role.
The score of the movie is suitably Maharashtrian, complimenting the movie. I don't know if you have noticed this but Bollywood seems fascinated with the idea of Ganesh songs or others running parallel with murder and melodrama scenes.
Apart from Kancha, everyone's performance has taken the movie a notch higher and fortunately there are no stupid-yet-intentional-because-audience-loves-it additions. Coming from Karan Johar, romance and slickness gives way to raw.
It's a nice remake and while you watch it try hard not to compare it with the original Agneepath, Agneepath, Agneepath.